The Humour Festival - Celebrating the value and benefits of humour to the Youth Work & Non-Formal Education Sector

The Humour Festival aims to increase the value, importance, relevance, benefits, and power of humour to Youth Work Practitioners and Non-Formal Educators.

Organised by The Humour Alliance, the week-long festival of activity (25+ sessions) is designed to bring together Youth Work Practitioners and Non-Formal Educators to explore, discuss, celebrate and nurture learning about the power of Humour as an effective means of engagement. 

Festival objectives are: (i) Increasing Knowlege (ii) Skills Acquisition (iii) Sharing Tools (iv) Reaching New Audiences and (v) Having Fun.

Rationale

Youth Workers and Non-Formal Educators are always on the lookout for, or are endeavouring to create new tools, methodologies, and models of practice.  They will essentially travel far and wide to listen, observe, or experience for themselves, ideas nurtured by others.  Yet, one that is free, natural, has countless benefits and is used more often than not by practitioners themselves is overlooked time and again. 

The irony of humour is that it is so obvious that people don’t see it.  It’s not on any policy agenda, you won’t see it in any strategy, and it rarely if ever features in programmes or plans yet it is often the way for a practitioner to reach a young person, to break the ice, to lessen the obstacles, to break down the barriers. 

In an era where the importance of mindfulness, sleeping and breathing among others has grown in recognition, why not humour?  In an era where Digital Tools, Graphic Facilitation and Social Media has emerged as virtual ever-presents in Youth Work practice, why not humour?

Humour has been around since before people mastered language, yet the Youth Work and Non-Formal Sector do not view it in the same way as other mediums such as drama, theatre, dance, music, poetry and the arts.  Perhaps it’s so natural that people don’t think about it as a tool they can use, or there’s a cultural hangover in that people are viewed as not taking life seriously if they are funny, or trying to be funny.  Or maybe practitioners tend to view humour through the prism of ‘stand-up’ and believe you can only use humour if you can entertain others. 

Nothing could be further from the truth.  Humour is much more than making people laugh - it is a mindset and a way of life.  How someone observes, responds and reacts to the world around them or how they approach life has the potential to empower them with skills and attributes that enables them to deal more effectively with the very many challenges that the modern era brings.

Why not join us and surprise yourself.  Humour is the shortest distance between people!

For more info go to:  https://thekingisalive.wixsite.com/humourfestival